


if you court this disaster

by minkhollow



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Siblings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-29
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2018-01-21 05:07:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1538807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minkhollow/pseuds/minkhollow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Claudia makes a discovery, and enlists her brother to help set things right. (Some S5 spoilers by the nature of the thing.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have this terrible feeling canon's going to wrap the Donovans plot line without mentioning Joshua at all, and we can't very well have that. It's his long-lost sister too!
> 
> I also don't much feel like giving Evil Giles the time of day, so: In this particular 'verse, they stopped Artie before he could actually unleash the Flower Plague on the world, negating the impetus for Charlotte's scheme to let him out. Claudia found the information the same way she's found so many other things people didn't want her to find out - someone left it on a computer.
> 
> I am not Syfy; I'm just borrowing to sort out my Claire feels.

She’s just settled into a seat to wait out the layover when her Farnsworth starts buzzing.

Claudia sighs. She’s half tempted not to answer, just let the damn thing buzz forever – but sooner or later that would get really annoying. Besides, just because she put in that she’s taking personal time doesn’t mean everyone’s paid attention to, or even got, that memo. So she fishes it out of her bag, flips it open, and says, “What?”

“Claud?” Steve looks worried, and for a moment Claudia wishes she’d told him what was going on before she took off – but she probably wouldn’t have made it out the door, in that case. “Where are you? What’s going on?”

“Relax, Jinksy. I’m taking some personal time. Need to talk to my brother about something.” It’s a little more snappish than she means, but Steve can take it, and won’t take it personally.

“Well, excuse me for worrying when you disappear after barely talking to anyone in the last three days. Is everything okay?”

“It will be.”

Steve eyes her like he’s trying to figure out if she’s lying, but Claudia knows she isn’t. It will be okay, once she gets to the bottom of this.

“If you say so. Artie’s freaking out, just so you know.”

“Good,” Claudia says, and she does mean that to be snappish. “Let him worry, and he’d better not try to follow me. I think he’s done enough to ‘help’ my family for a long time coming.”

“Claud…”

“Drop it, Steve. I’ll tell you when I get home.” She closes the Farnsworth before he can add anything else, and sighs again while she puts it away. She doesn’t like leaving him out in the cold like this, but she’s still too steaming to talk about it properly to anyone other than Joshua.

Besides, if he happens to take the hint she gave him, she did leave a copy of the file she dug up on her desk in her bedroom. Artie won’t go digging in there. She’ll just have to hope that, if Steve finds it, he doesn’t go blabbing to anyone else.

***

Joshua’s starting to wonder if something’s wrong.

CERN’s great and all, or it would be if anyone would let him do his own research instead of number-crunching everyone else’s data. Working on his doctorate helped, until he finished it, and even that hasn’t been enough to pull him out of data-monkey status. He’d practically jumped at the chance to do that private research in California – except that was apparently Artie’s oblique way of telling Claud he’d been whammied hard by something, and the money for it ran out not long after the amber incident (what is it with him and fucking shiny gold nonsense, anyway?).

California had almost helped, but then he had to go back to Geneva, and he feels more and more like he’s just going through the motions and less and less like he has any reason to care about that.

There’s a knock on the door, startling Joshua out of his stupor; he closes his solitaire window, pulls up the data he’s ostensibly analyzing, and says, “Yeah, what’s up?”

“Knock knock.”

“Claud! Come in, what are you doing here?” He can’t help a guilty glance at Shinji’s stupid bull tchotchke as she opens the door – hopefully she’s not here to take his last piece of really interesting research out from under his nose – but he drops that train of thought entirely when he sees her face. She looks like she’s been hit by a truck. “What’s wrong? Have things been that bad since… since you went home?” Joshua only knows the basics of the situation – something about Artie shooting Leena and trying to start a plague, but they stopped him before he got that far. He can’t imagine that’s been easy for any of the Warehouse staff to cope with.

Instead of answering directly, Claudia pulls a manila folder out of her bag and hands it to him. “Tell me you didn’t know anything about this.”

“Know anything about what?” He takes the file with a frown, which grows when he opens it and sees ‘DONOVAN, CLAIRE’ emblazoned across the top of the first page. “What the hell? Why do they have a file on Claire?”

“Because she’s been in an Artifacty coma for the better part of two decades,” Claudia says; Joshua sees for the first time that she’s really pissed off, right up there with when she dragged Artie into his old lab to rescue him, and he can’t blame her one bit. “And Artie knew about it the whole time.”

***

Much to Claudia’s relief, Joshua splutters for a good five minutes or so after she drops that bombshell; she figures the longer it takes him to get past “what the fuck?” the less likely it is anyone bothered telling him what was going on in the first place.

When he finally stops, she musters the barest traces of a smile. “That’s what I’ve been saying for the last few days. Did I ever mention the music box to you?”

Joshua frowns. “I don’t know, Claud. I was in the middle of my final papers at the time.”

“I know, I just wasn’t sure if you’d remember. Anyway – she found it at a yard sale, I told her I didn’t like it and leave it alone, she bought the stupid thing and apparently turned into Clairenado. It ended up in the fireplace – I’m not sure how – and… well, I guess there wasn’t enough of it left to goo and Artie wasn’t willing to get very creative with de-whammying her.”

She’s not entirely giving Artie credit there. There’s a three-page list at the end of the file of things they did try before hooking her up to some incredibly soothing music and hiding her somewhere in the Warehouse. But she doesn’t feel like giving Artie credit, right now.

“And… what, he thought you’d just never find this out?”

“I guess so, never mind that the relevant file was on a fucking computer. I’m honestly wondering what miracle kept me from finding it when I was busting in to save your ass. I also can’t figure out why, since you didn’t already know, no one actually told you, unless they wanted you to be able to maintain the ‘nope, she’s totes dead’ story for me. But still.”

Joshua sighs and runs a hand through his hair, old-school Donovan speak for ‘what is this I don’t even.’ “Still doesn’t change the fact that I’m, I don’t know, the last fucking person alive who knew her in any reasonable capacity – no offense, Claud, but you were seven. You probably couldn’t have done much to help at the time.”

“Oh, none taken. The most I could do was say things got weird after she picked up the stupid box.”

“Probably cranked the dial, too – it is a music box. So, um. I guess that makes the car accident not quite an accident.”

Claudia nods. “I think she Clairenadoed the car into that tree in the front yard, from the look of the pictures. She was whammied, she was probably scared – the file says the personal-tornado effect’s triggered by anger, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it also made her angrier. Perfect storm of bad Artifact juju.”

“You don’t have to justify it to me, Claud, I’ve seen how these things work too. She never would have done that on her own.” Joshua stares at the file in a way that suggests he’s not really taking in any of the information on the page in front of him, but that’s okay; she’s told him the relevant parts. “So now what do we do?”

She’d been hoping he would say that.

***

Almost as soon as it’s out of his mouth, Joshua wants to kick himself. For all he knows, Claudia only came here to tell him what was up and find out if he’d been keeping the secret from her, too; is he really that desperate for something else to do that he’s inventing an opportunity where there probably isn’t one? “I mean, I say ‘we,’ but if you want to handle this one yourself I—”

Claud fixes him with a look that she’s used on him since she was four or so. “Don’t be a dipshit, dipshit,” she says, in full Claudia Donovan Is Judging You mode. “Of course I want your help – like you said, you knew Claire’s actual personality a lot better than I ever did. Besides, I’m not convinced I can get her de-whammied by myself, and I don’t want Artie touching this with a 39-and-a-half-foot pole. Even if he weren’t still dealing with the Leena thing, I think he’s meddled enough.”

“No shit.” Joshua sighs. “Why is it that every time something in our family breaks, he’s up to his neck in it?”

“Because he was the last agent standing at the time, I guess? I don’t know, I just want to know how long he thought he could keep me from knowing about this. There’s a list of things that didn’t work in the file, but if we put our heads together, we can find the one that will.”

Joshua nods, and flips the file closed; there’s not much more he’s going to be able to absorb from it right now. “Of course we can. We don’t give up on family.”

“Of course we don’t. Just because this is the second time I’ve had to rescue one of my siblings doesn’t mean I’m not going to let you help. Why am I getting so jittery? What do you have in here?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, baby sister.” He knows that won’t stall her for long, but the point stands – if she figures this out, he’s going to come back from the rescue mission to nothing but soul-crushing boredom.

“No, I think you do. Isn’t that Shinji’s desk thingy? Why do you have it? Is that a glove under – what, did you steal half my stash in California or something?” Claudia fishes a static bag out of her bag and shoves the stupid bull in it before Joshua can protest – and raises an eyebrow at him after the shower of sparks dies down. “And when were you planning to mention you’d made an Artifact? Because I don’t see Shinji doing anything that brilliant.”

“…Don’t take it?”

“If I take it, it’ll be because it’s coming back with you. Have you even done any actual work on that file you have open?”

Joshua sighs, but doesn’t try to say he has; this is his sister, not his boss. “Not like I could stay in South Dakota anyway.”

“Why not? It’s probably gonna take us a few days to untangle what’s going on with Claire, and then she’ll need someone to help her adjust to the 21st century – and who better than someone who’s been there? You’re clearly bored, and a bored Donovan is never a good thing. Come back and help, and we’ll figure it all out from there.”

He really can’t argue with that logic, so he closes his pretense of work and gets up. “Well, I do have plenty of leave saved up. Let’s go, baby sister.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've given up on any hope of making this mesh with the show's current timeline. XD This is, like most of my stuff, more rooted in an S1 timeline - Joshua disappeared in '97, the music box shenanigans happened in '94. So far as I've put a current year to this I'm leaning 2012.
> 
> Also, I do have a plan for de-whammying Claire that will blithely ignore whatever canon does, unless I'm thinking on the same wavelength as the show.

Claudia ends up sleeping on the flight across the Atlantic, but she’s awake for the overland leg of things back to South Dakota. She’s still a little surprised Joshua took so much of his accrued vacation time for this, but not completely; this is family, after all, and he’s such a hermit that he probably doesn’t have much else to use it on.

In Minneapolis, Joshua stops at the first Starbucks they cross paths with and gets them both food and coffee; when they’ve settled in at the gate for their flight to Rapid City, he says, “I read the file while you were sleeping. This isn’t gonna be easy.”

“Well, no, I wasn’t expecting easy. But I do have a few ideas. We could try transferring the whammy energy into—”

“Into something that stores energy? You didn’t read the failed attempts very closely, baby sister, Artie already tried that. Apparently the whammy jumped to the nearest convenient human and they had to put it back into Claire.”

Claudia sighs. “Well, it was a good idea while it lasted. What else is definitely out?”

“Anti-psychotic meds didn’t work. Mood stabilisers didn’t work – you were right about it making her more prone to anger instead of just flaring up when she was naturally angry. They weren’t sure if it was safe to try putting her under the influence of a calming Artifact long-term, not to mention it’d be inconvenient if she had to carry something around for the rest of her life.”

“It’s inconvenient that she’s in a frakking coma, in case you missed the memo.”

Joshua rolls his eyes – and reaches over, Claudia realizes too late, to ruffle her hair. “And I was inconveniently discorporated for twelve years – I know what that memo’s like very well. Anyway, there’s a lot of things they did try, but I think I picked up on something they haven’t.”

“Spill the beans, then,” Claudia says, trying to restore her hair’s dignity with one hand while balancing her coffee and muffin with the other.

“Right after you busted me out of the interdimensional space – I don’t know if you heard this, I think you were busy trying to shove Harry Potter down my throat—”

Claudia grins. “Well, I couldn’t turn you loose without you knowing what your House is.” Sure, she could have told him he’s a Ravenclaw – so Ravenclaw it hurts, frankly – but people would expect him to know everything that means, not just say it like he’s citing a data point with nothing to back it up yet. It was as much a public service as telling him he’d missed another Bush administration, a terrorist attack, and the rise and decline of LiveJournal as a viable blogging platform.

“Anyway, Miss Hufflepuff. I overheard Artie and Pete talking about the whole mess in the hallway. Artie asked Pete how they cracked the secret panel and Pete said something about Artifacts being extensions of the people who create them and some mumbo-jumbo about gleaning.”

“Bet he got that info from Mrs. F, in that case.”

“Oh, probably,” Joshua says. “I don’t see him having that idea by himself. But my point is, in all of Artie’s possible solutions over the years, I don’t see much gleaning going on. The solution might be with the music box’s original owner.”

“There is something to that. Maybe we can make Frances Farmer stop having her revenge on Omaha.”

Joshua frowns, but their flight starts calling for boarding before he can say anything. Claudia takes advantage of the moment to ruffle his hair in return, and ducks away for the garbage can before he can start protesting.

***

Joshua never could sleep on planes all that well – and since his stint in shiny gold nonsense, long periods in confined spaces with a lot of people have become exponentially more uncomfortable. By the time they get to Rapid City, he’s pretty damn tired, but not so tired that he can’t give Claudia a hard time about her car.

“Silver, baby sister? Really?”

“What? I want to paint it purple, and I figured it’d be easier to start from silver than anything else. White’s too boring even for the interim.”

“So why haven’t you had it painted yet?”

Claudia shrugs and pops the trunk for their luggage. “You would not believe how hard it is to come up with a goo formula that’ll double as car paint without peeling at the drop of a hat. Even with Doug’s help I don’t think we’re halfway there yet.”

Joshua rolls his eyes, but doesn’t say anything else as he puts his suitcase in the trunk and gets in the car; next thing he knows, Claudia’s shaking him awake outside the B&B.

“Wha?”

“We’re here, sleepyhead. Just in time for dinner, I think, but you’re probably going to want to go sleep.”

Joshua opens his mouth to protest, but yawns instead. “…Yeah, I think you might be right about that. Help me find an empty room?”

She does – even hauls his suitcase in for him, she must really be worked up over this Claire business if she’s being so helpful. Joshua barely hears her say goodbye for the time being; he’s fast asleep within minutes.

When he finally wakes up, it’s dark out. He heads downstairs to see if there’s anything edible in the fridge, and can’t help the passing thought that Leena probably wrapped up something from dinner before he remembers. That just leaves him wondering who’s running the B&B now, technically; everyone else who works for the Warehouse is way too busy to actually do that.

Not that the place gets anything in the way of actual guests, but still.

The fridge does turn up a number of sandwich fixings; Joshua would be more surprised, but of course Pete’s going to make sure he can eat a sandwich whenever he damn well pleases, no matter what else is going on. He puts together a respectable roast beef sandwich, puts everything away, and turns around with the jug of milk in hand, only to come face to face with Artie.

“What are you doing here?”

“Didn’t realize I needed your permission to visit my little sister,” Joshua says, and instantly wonders if he shouldn’t have given that away.

But, proving that after four years around Claudia he still can’t speak Donovan, Artie only shrugs. “I thought she was visiting you.”

“Change of plans. She needs my help with something.” He turns back to the cabinets, hoping like hell Artie will take that as the hint it is; the situation with Claire aside, he’s really not prepared to have a conversation with much of anyone right now. Sure enough, by the time he’s fished out a glass, Artie’s gone.

Joshua takes the sandwich upstairs before anyone else tries to be social (it’s probably coming up on time for Pete’s 3 AM sandwich, if nothing else). He knows better than to think he’ll get back to sleep any time soon – his body’s still functioning like it’s eight hours ahead of the time zone he’s actually in – so he gets out his laptop and decides to get started on that gleaning. It’s not like he has anything better to do, and while Wikipedia might be a vastly imperfect resource, it’s better than nothing.

It doesn’t take him long to come to the conclusion that Frances Farmer was a piece of work. And fond of throwing things at people – no wonder that stupid fucking music box turned his sister into a human tornado.

Toward the end of the article, he pauses, sandwich hanging in midair in a way that Claud would surely mock him for if she could see him right now. Then he puts it down, digs a notebook out of his bag, and copies down the thing that made him stop. He may not be Pete, but he still has a feeling that’s going to be a key to cracking this case.

***

Through some miracle, in the four days it takes them to get all the parts of their plan in working order, Artie doesn’t ask what they’re up to. Whether that’s because he’s still off in Guilt-trips-ville over Leena or what, Claudia’s not asking; for now, she’s going to let him keep living in whatever la-la-land is keeping him out of their hair.

Joshua says he has an idea from Wikipedia, but he wants to check other stuff before they go in with that alone, so Claudia sets him up in the Warehouse library before pulling up as many online auctions as she can find, the better to start scouring for other knick-knacks that once belonged to a volatile actress from Seattle.

She has a theory. Artie’s notes say that the whammy can’t be stored in another Artifact, that it prefers to jump to another person instead – but just like he hasn’t done any gleaning, he hasn’t, as far as she can tell, tried transferring the whammy into something else that belonged to the person who created the first Artifact. It’s not like people can’t make more than one Artifact in their lifetime (she’s lost count of how much of Ben Franklin’s crap they have, not counting his tech-Artifact inventions). Maybe more than one thing they owned would be a suitable vessel for the same effect. It’s a long shot, but she’s not going to leave it untested.

When Joshua finally emerges from the library, he says, “That backed me up. I think I’m going to have to talk to her.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?”

“Well, you’ve said before that sometimes Artifacts require the person who’s whammied to do something before the effect stops, if you can’t goo it. Maybe part of the problem is that no one’s tried to talk her down enough that she can let it go herself.”

Claudia frowns. “I’m pretty sure Mom and Dad were trying to talk her down, and look where that got them.”

“They were also doing it in a way where, from what the file says, Claire thought they were going to dump her somewhere, and when the whammy comes from someone who was involuntarily committed, that’s not going to go over well. Besides, maybe a calming Artifact isn’t a long-term option, but there’s gotta be something we can take for the short term. Long enough for her to talk to me – and yes, it has to be me, she wouldn’t recognize you. She’ll still expect you to be seven.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that one. But I still want to try re-homing the whammy while we’re at it. And if worse comes to worst… well, I guess I could always stab her.”

Joshua looks at her like she’s grown a second head. “Since when do you go around stabbing people you care about?”

“It was that or let Artie start an Artifact plague! Would you rather be dying of sweating sickness?”

“Definitely not. Any promising stuff yet?”

By the end of the day, Claudia’s found, bid on, won, and arranged for super-duper express shipping of a prop from the last play Frances Farmer was in – playing someone named Claire, ironically enough. She just hopes it doesn’t get to them and turn out to already be an Artifact.

She makes it until the night before they leave (since it turns out Claire’s not being held in the Warehouse at all, but in a Regent-owned building in Featherhead) before she finally tells Steve the whole story. She just can’t bring herself to go into this with him still in the dark; besides, just in case things really go pear-shaped, it’s probably better if someone else knows.

When she finishes, Steve’s quiet for a long time. “You know Artie’s gonna figure this out sooner or later,” he finally says.

Claudia shrugs. “He’s still not really processing right – you’re the one who made a big deal about that to the Regents. The last thing he needs right now is one more of his failures being rubbed in his face. At least, not until we’re done, and then he has a hell of a lot of explaining to do. This is twice he’s left my siblings in the lurch.”

“Who’s to say he hasn’t been working on this?”

“He didn’t work on Joshua’s problem. Neither of us wants to take that chance. And we’re going in with like, four plans at once. It’ll be okay, you’ll see.”

Steve looks at her like he doesn’t quite believe her, but he doesn’t press the matter.


	3. Chapter 3

The plan is for Claudia to disable the cameras and then hang back, but she’s barely shut the things down – with some kind of spray-can arrangement Joshua’s not questioning too closely – when she bolts for Claire’s side.

He’s gotta admit, this isn’t what he’d expected to find, even having read the file and knowing there were multiple Artifacts in play; what’s keeping Claire in the coma would have killed her a long time ago if they didn’t have something keeping her involuntary systems functioning. Still, it’s disconcerting to see his little sister (holy mother of God, she looks older than he does, now) hanging from the ceiling. There must be some kind of bracing board under her too, but still.

“Claire?” Claudia takes one of Claire’s hands, meeting no resistance; Joshua can’t see her face, but he’d be very surprised if Claudia isn’t crying. “I’m sorry it took us so long. But we’re not going to leave you like this.”

“I don’t think she can hear you, Claud.” Not that Joshua can blame Claudia for trying. He’s of half a mind to do the same thing, but he’s trying to hold off until Claire’s awake. “If you’re going to be in here, help me get this shawl thingy on her before we wake her up.”

“You think it’ll work?”

“If anyone can keep her calm long enough to talk, it’s Gandhi. How sure are you about that play prop working?”

Claudia unpacks the shawl from its static bag, then waves the hand holding the bag. “Abso-mostly. Not like anyone’s tried to re-home a whammy before, but it was the best shot I could find.”

After they’ve maneuvered the shawl around Claire’s shoulders, Claudia pulls Joshua into a hug. “You got this?”

“I got this, baby sister. Now get out of here.”

She does, leaving the play prop on the table holding the record player and a family photo on her way out. And then Joshua’s alone – well, alone-ish, as Claire’s not much company at the moment – with his thoughts. That’s nothing new.

He’s half afraid this won’t work, half expecting Artie to come after them anyway, and entirely wanting his family all in one place again. When this settles out he really needs to look into moving back to the States.

“Enough dawdling, self,” he says out loud, before taking a deep breath and pulling the headphones off Claire.

***

This isn’t Claire’s bedroom.

She knows that, bone-deep, the instant she opens her eyes. Purple’s an okay color, but it was never her favorite, and even then her parents never would have let her paint her room this dark – her room’s more of a mint green, with a white ceiling. And she has a bed, not some… hammock thing hanging from the ceiling. Are the ceilings in the house even high enough to hold this thing up? And there’s not nearly enough furniture for this to be a bedroom in the first place.

Even as she’s processing this, she knows she should be more freaked out by unfamiliar surroundings than she actually is. Ordinarily, she’d be pretty pissed. But maybe, considering the last couple times she got angry, it’s just as well she isn’t now.

“Claire?”

Claire blinks, and sits up; it feels like she’s been asleep too long. Joshua’s standing by a table that was behind her head, holding a pair of headphones and looking at her like he’s seeing a ghost.

“Joshua? Where are we? What’s going on?”

“We’re in South Dakota. As for what’s going on…” Joshua sighs. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out. What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Mom and Dad picked me up from school.” There’s more than that, but a lot of it’s hazy, like Claire wasn’t really awake when it happened, or something. “Why? Where’s Claud? Is she okay?”

“Claud’s fine, don’t panic. It’s just a little complicated. Do you remember the music box?”

Does she remember? How the hell could she forget? Between Claudia insisting it was possessed or something and how angry she kept getting after she bought it, Claire would be hard pressed not to remember it. But she doesn’t quite trust herself to say any of that, so she just nods.

“Well, uh.” She can almost see Joshua shift into Professor Mode; last time she saw it, he was trying to help her through her chemistry homework. “Long story short, Claud was right about it being bad news. Some people who collect these things came to get it from you, but they got there a little late, and they tried to help you – not much, but they tried – and, uh… it’s been eighteen years.”

“What? Eighteen _years_? The hell kind of ‘help’ is just – leaving me somewhere and forgetting all about me? Where the hell were you guys that whole time?” And before she can stop it, the panic’s transmuted into anger and Joshua goes flying across the room.

“Ow. Fuck, Claire. I know it’s not easy right now, but breathe, will you?”

Claire does – and she calms down a lot faster than she can remember doing since… well, since she got the music box and screwed over her family for three dollars. “Sorry. How – how are you keeping it from controlling me?”

“Something of Gandhi’s. Claud works for the giant toy box these days, called me in as soon as she found out they were hiding you. We didn’t know you were here to be found. If we did, we would’ve gotten you out sooner. I might’ve had my hands full with Claud, but I would have asked about you if I’d known you were still alive to be asked about.”

That tiny seed of anger says not to believe him, but the other thing (did this shawl around her shoulders seriously belong to Gandhi? Shouldn’t it be in a museum or something, in that case?) wins out, and she does believe him. But Claire still snorts. “You sure you weren’t just being an inattentive ass like usual?”

Joshua sighs. “I’m sorry about that. I wasn’t being inattentive to you on purpose, I just – Claud was tiny, and even Mom and Dad needed babysitting sometimes. You seemed like you had it all together, so I was letting you take care of yourself. I should’ve noticed you actually needed me more than that.”

Claire shrugs; she was the normal kid in the family and she knows it. Arguing that point isn’t going to do any good, and besides, Joshua saying he was taking care of Claudia jarred something loose in her memory.

“Mom and Dad… oh God, I cost you MIT, didn’t I.” She can see it now; either he didn’t want to uproot Claud, or the state told him they wouldn’t let her leave with him as her sole guardian. “I ruined everything for you. How can you even stand to be in the same room as me?”

“No, you didn’t.” Much to her surprise, Joshua comes over and pulls her into a hug. “Taking care of Claud was more important. Besides, you didn’t do that – the music box did. These things make you do shit you wouldn’t do of your own free will. I’m here because you’re my sister, and you’re still a good person. I love you just as much as I love Claud, Claire, you’re a good person.”

Even the little ball of anger can’t find fault with that statement. For the first time in ages – eighteen years, she guesses – it dissipates completely.

“I love you too, dumbass,” she chokes out, and then starts crying.

***

Claudia’s never been much good at waiting, and a situation like this, where it’s her family on the line? Even worse. She’d be a total basket case if she didn’t know that Joshua knows what he’s doing.

Still, there’s so much at stake here. They don’t know if they can re-home a whammy. They don’t know if they can get it out of Claire without putting it in someone else, and frankly, they don’t have anyone expendable. Maybe someone who’s already bronzed, but that would just be a nightmare if that person ever got debronzed. They’ve already seen what Helena whipped up on her own; those people don’t need any help from other Artifacts.

They don’t know if the shawl is even going to work, in the end, and if it doesn’t…

Finally, after what feels like an eternity, Joshua calls for her, and Claudia pokes her head in the door. “Did it work?”

“…Holy shit,” Claire says; she looks like she’s been crying. “I’m glad you eased me into this.”

Claudia grins, and heads in, and goes directly for the group hug. Her family’s back together, and better. Artie and the Regents can deal with it (dot gif); it shouldn’t have gone on this long, but at least now it’s better.

“This is just weird,” Claire finally says. “You look too old and he looks too young, and someone’s going to have to make sure I don’t try to go to school tomorrow.”

Claudia snorts. “Yeah, no, you don’t have to do that anymore. You can either finish a GED on your own or I can whip up some very convincing paperwork – just ask Joshua how his passport’s working out for him.”

“His – why would you need a fake passport?”

“It’s a long story,” Joshua says. “Teleportation bit me in the ass. I’ll probably forgive myself about the same time you forgive yourself.”

Claire rolls her eyes. “Good going, brother dear. So, um. Now what?”

“Well, first order of business, we gotta put everything away.” Claudia gloves up, pulls the shawl off Claire’s shoulders and bags it, and then approaches the table. “Joshua, do you think we should bring the record player back or leave it here?”

“Leave it, I think. I don’t know how to get these band things out of the ceiling, so someone else will have to come out here anyway.”

Claudia nods, then sticks the prop into a static bag. She’s never been so happy to see something spark when she put it away, especially since it didn’t before they left.

“What was that?” Claire says.

“Proof you’re in the clear. Now let’s…” Claudia trails off as she turns around and takes in Claire’s hospital gown. “Get you some clothes, and then go home. We’ve got a lot to catch you up on, and we’ll wing it from there.”

It worked well enough with Joshua. She has faith Claire will be able to keep up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The underpinning for how I went about de-whammying Claire can be found [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Farmer#Indianapolis).


End file.
